1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power converters, and more specifically relates to the control of switching power converters.
2. Description of Related Art
Switching power converters have been widely used to provide regulated voltage and current. However, the switching of power converter causes power losses such as conduction loss and switching loss. The switching loss is the significant loss at light load. In order to maintain high efficiency of power converter, many techniques have been developed to reduce the power consumption, such as “Full load to no-load control for a voltage fed resonant inverter” by Park, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,041; “Strobed DC-DC converter with current regulation” by Pace, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,861; “Control circuit and method for maintaining high efficiency over broad current ranges in a switching regulator circuit” by Wilcox, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,178; “Switching regulator having low power mode responsive to load power consumption” by Jeffrey Hwang, U.S. Pat. No. 5,747,977. However, the drawback of these prior arts is the detection circuit of the load. A hysteresis comparator is utilized to detect the load condition and on/off states of the power converter. The switching frequency of the power converter cannot be programmed especially when acoustic noise is generated. Besides, the output ripple caused by the burst switching is uncontrollable. These shortcomings are the main object of the present invention to overcome.